Introduction Refugees often face family conflict, along with increased stress, anxiety, and depression, as they adapt to new socio-cultural environments with limited language and essential skills. Examining the link between family conflict resolution (FCR) and mental health can provide valuable insights for promoting mental health among refugees. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the relationship between FCR and stress, anxiety, and depression among resettled Bhutanese adults in Massachusetts. Methods We surveyed 103 Bhutanese adults using a structured questionnaire. FCR was assessed with the 17-item FCR Scale. Stress levels were measured with the 10-item Cohen Perceived Stress Scale, and anxiety and depressive symptoms were evaluated with the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression, controlling for socio-demographic factors and coping styles. Results The mean (SD) ages of the male and female participants were 44.01 (16.6) and 38.19 (13.06), respectively. FCR was inversely associated with stress (β = −0.099, p = 0.002), anxiety (β = −0.103, p = 0.019), and depression (β = −0.120, p = 0.033). Mean scores in the highest tertile of FCR decreased significantly by 24.19% for stress (p for trend = 0.0002), 27.67% for anxiety (p for trend = 0.003), and 26.10% for depression (p for trend = 0.001) compared with the lowest tertile. Conclusion Greater use of FCR strategies was associated with lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Incorporating FCR skills into clinical and community care can improve mental health outcomes by fostering healthier family relationships, expanding support networks, and building resilience.
Introduction Promotora/es de Salud, a subgroup of Community Health Workers, experience significant workplace stressors, including uncompensated emotional labor and blurred professional-community boundaries. Using the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, this study explored how Promotora/es de Salud and leaders evaluate occupational stressors and coping resources, including how cultural nuances, such as marianismo and familismo, may influence well-being. Methods Using purposive and snowball sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted via Zoom with Promotora/es de Salud ( n = 21) and leaders ( n = 10) in Colorado. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and analyzed using a hybrid deductive-inductive thematic approach guided by stress appraisal and coping constructs. Results Primary appraisals yielded two themes: (1) occupational stressors, including vicarious community stress, direct institutional and political threats, and role overload and underappreciation; and (2) leadership-specific stressors. Secondary appraisals identified perceived constraints on coping resources, including caregiving burdens and organizational wellness gaps. Coping responses included individual strategies, such as boundary-setting, physical activity, and family-centered social connection, and organizational coping resources and workplace well-being inspirations, including healing circles, mindfulness, and flexible, peer-centered wellness programming. Discussion Findings illustrate multi-level occupational stressors, resource constraints, and gaps in culturally responsive workplace well-being initiatives. Self-care needs were diverse, context-dependent, and shaped by cultural values, including marianismo and familismo . Conclusion Findings support the development of flexible, culturally grounded workplace wellness programs that provide self-care options and peer support structures to address workplace stress and promote sustainable well-being among Promotora/es de Salud.
Background Food security advocates find it difficult to convince Canadians that household food insecurity (HFI) represents a profound public policy crisis that demands action. Much of this is due to the growth of a “Hunger-Industrial Complex” where a vast network of food banks and food diversion schemes give the false impression that these charitable activities are addressing the food insecurity crisis. Attempts to shift Canadians’ understandings through research and advocacy of how these activities do little to reduce HFI and serve to prolong the crisis have been largely ineffective. Purpose We show how the arts and humanities provide means of showing the inadequacies of food charity and direct attention to the systemic issues driving HFI and means of reducing it. In particular we show how poems and songs from plays of German writer Bertolt Brecht that consider the importance of food and the problems associated with charitable food provision can stimulate discussion of how HFI is embedded within existing food production and distribution systems as well as contemporary neoliberal capitalism. Findings These activities may enable more nuanced understandings among food security researchers and advocates and the general public of the true sources of food insecurity, thereby enabling effective actions to reduce it. Conclusion There is a profound need to mobilize the public to have governing authorities place questions of how food is produced and distributed on the public policy agenda. Looking to the arts and humanities for insights into these issues is a promising means of accomplishing this goal.
Background The complexities of multilingualism in COVID-19 communication campaigns across Southeast Asia’s multicultural countries remain unexplored. Objective This paper aims to map and summarize the development, implementation, and evaluation of COVID-19 preventive behavior and vaccination campaigns in the region. Methods Utilizing the PRISMA-ScR framework, major databases were searched for relevant articles published between January 2020 and March 2025, focusing on the content and delivery of COVID-19 communication campaigns within multilingual Southeast Asian countries. Results Twenty articles were retrieved, most of which originated from Indonesia (n = 11), followed by Vietnam (n = 3), Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore (n = 2 each). Studies on prevention (n = 13) outnumbered those on vaccination campaigns (n = 5). Of the 86 described campaign materials, posters (n = 63) were the most prevalent media type, primarily developed by the government (n = 60). Most materials used the country’s official language for the campaigns, with 49 for prevention and 27 for vaccination. Channels varied; government social media dominated in Malaysia, while physical public spaces were most common elsewhere. The strategic implementation of multilingual and culturally specific communication emerged as a key opportunity, in contrast to the major challenge of the widespread anti-vaccine misinformation on social media. Conclusions The reported communication materials were largely characterized by an urgent, mass-reach approach using a country’s official language, which endangered linguistic minorities. Crucially, this review highlights a systemic mishap in campaign assessment, marked by a near-total absence of evidence-based impact data, hindering the evaluation of effective strategies for public health outcomes.
Background Attempts to promote health equity through traditional means of public policy advocacy have proven profoundly unsuccessful in Canada. Despite decades of research, policy statements and declarations as to the importance of addressing the causes of health inequalities that prematurely sicken and kill, the quality and equitable distribution of the living and working conditions, i.e., the social determinants of health, continue to decline. Purpose In this paper we examine the most recent attempt to promote public policy to reverse these developments – the well-being economy – that calls for “an economy designed to serve people and the planet, not the other way around” which has similarities with the coexisting concept of a post-capitalist socialist economy. Analysis We compare and contrast the assumptions of both approaches through a critical materialist political economy perspective lens and their likelihood of moving the health equity-promoting public policy agenda forward. Findings We found most of the well-being economy literature's preferred outcomes are remarkably consistent with the vision of a post-capitalist socialist economy that puts the well-being of people above profit-making. However, the means by which advocates propose these outcomes may come about are profoundly different. The omission of the terms socialist or socialism in the well-being economy literature suggests its advocates may see it as a Trojan Horse for infiltrating these concepts into public policy discourse. Conclusion We see the well-being economy concept as another well-meaning initiative to promote health equity that is likely to be ignored by governing authorities whose interests are aligned with those for whom such an economy would conflict with their profit-making motives. Instead, we call for explicit consideration of a post-capitalist socialist economy and how it could move us towards a health equity promoting society.
